29 March 2013

Kenya's flag carrier, Kenya Airways, will launch flights to Abu Dhabi, the capital of the United Arab Emirates. From 01 July 2013, the airline will operate a three weekly service between the two destinations on boad a Boeing 737-800 aircraft.

27 March 2013

According to the latest statistics released by the Department of Environmental Affairs, South Africa has already lost 188 rhinos to illegal poaching since the beginning of 2013. Of the rhinos poached, 135 rhinos were killed in the Kruger National Park, 17 in North West, 16 in KwaZulu-Natal, 10 in Limpopo and 10 in
Mpumalanga. A total of 63 poachers and individuals charged with the illegal trade in rhino horn have been arrested so far.

The Department of Environmental Affairs (DEA) is urging members of the public to report incidents of rhino poaching
or any tip-offs to the anonymous tip-off lines 0800 205 005, 08600 10111 or Crime-Line on 32211.

Kenya's flag carrier, Kenya Airways, will increase its flights between Jomo Kenyatta International Airport (NBO) in Nairobi and Guangzhou Baiyun International Airport (CAN) in Guangzhou (China) via Bangkok (Thailand). From 01 April 2013 the airline will operate daily flights instead of four weekly flights on the route.Kenya Airways, a full member of the SkyTeam
alliance since 2010, is currently flying to 59 destinations worldwide,
including 48 destinations in Africa, and carries over three million
passengers annually.

26 March 2013

South Africa's land borders are getting ready for the Easter period as it is one of the busiest periods for border posts of the year, with exceptionally high numbers of travellers crossing in a relatively short space of time.

Beit Bridge border post (South Africa - Zimbabwe) will be operating 24hrs from 25 March to 14 April 2013

A group of tourist on a shark cage diving trip in Gansbaai recently experienced what can probably only be described as the worst nightmare. They were in a shark cage in the water, when a great white shark managed to put its head into cage. According to cameraman Bryan Plummer, the shark ignored the bait that was used to attract it, and went straight for the cage. Luckily no one got injured! Kudos Bryan for sharing the video.

This is the first we have ever heard about such an incident. Have you ever heard about something similar it before? Let us know about it and share your experiences with us!

22 March 2013

On 07 April 2012, Namibia will discontinue daylight saving time for about 5 month. Time will therefore change again from UTC+2 to UTC+1. The official time change will take place at 02:00am (from 02:00am to 01:00am). Daylight saving time in Namibia will resume again on the first Sunday in September 2013 (01 Sept 2013). The time will not change in the Caprivi in Namibia's north, as this area is not subject to summer and winter time changes. Only Mororcco and Namibia are currently using daylight saving time on the African continent.

06 April 2013 - sunrise: 07:01 | sunset: 18:46

07 April 2013 - sunrise: 06:02 | sunset: 17:45

Sunrise and sunset times may vary from place to place depending on latitude and longitude.

Travellers, update your Cape Town city maps. The city yesterday (21 March 2013, Human Rights Day) officially renamed six streets and one civic center after South African struggle icons and a South African poet.

21 March 2013

All tourism publications seem currently to be talking about Bolivia as the most unfriendly country for tourists in the world and Iceland as the most friendly country for tourists, so I had a look how the World Economic Forum (WEF) acutally assesed the friendliness towards foreign tourists in East and Southern Africa.
According to the Travel & Tourism Competitiveness Report 2013, in which the WEF compared the (un)friendliness of 140 countries, Rwanda has the best "Attitude [of population] towards foreign visitors" in East and Southern Africa. Zambia was ranked the second most friendly country in the region, followed by Uganda and South Africa.

According to aviation specialists ch-aviation.ch, Air Tanzania will soon launch its first international service. From 25 March 2013, the airline will introduce a three weekly service between Julius Nyerere International Airport in Dar Es Salaam and Prince Said Ibrahim International Airport in Moroni on the Comoros. Air Tanzania will operate the flights on board its single Boeing 737 aircraft.Air Tanzania is the national airline of Tanzania and is based at Julius Nyerere International Airport in Dar Es Salaam. The airline resumed operations in October 2012 after being grounded for nearly 1.5 years due to various, mainly financial, reasons.

20 March 2013

Google has added a selection of the world's highest mountains to its Street View interactive library, including Aconcagua (Argentina), Mount Elbrus (Russia), the Everest Base Camp (Nepal) and, of course, Mount Kilimanjaro in Tanzania (Africa). Street View teams climbed all four mountains and took three shots while facing north, three south, three east and three west on each peak using the usual tripod-mounted digital cameras equipped with a fisheye view lens to capture 360-degree views. The pictures taken on top of Mount Kilimanjaro were taken from Uhuru Peak, the mountain's highest summit.

Mount Kilimanjaro, actually a stratovolcano, is composed of three distinct volcanic cones - Kibo 5,895m, Mawenzi 5,149m and Shira 3,962 m. Uhuru Peak on Kibo's crater rim is the mountain's highest summit. Mawenzi and Shiba are already extinct while Kibo is still dormant and could erupt again. Mount Kilimanjaro is the highest mountain in Africa and fourth highest of the Seven Summits. It is the tallest freestanding mountain in the world, as well as the 4th most prominent mountain in the world.

Filmed right in front of one of the tents at the Zungulila Bushcamp in the South Luangwa National Park in Zambia, the video below shows two adult lionesses and five cups on their freshly killed impala as well as an uninvited visitor: a huge crocodile that got attracted by the smell... Enjoy!

The Southern African countries of Angola, Namibia and South Africa have signed the Benguela Current Convention, through which the three governments seek to promote a coordinated regional approach to the conservation, protection, rehabilitation, enhancement and sustainable use of the Benguela Current Large Marine Ecosystem (BCLME). By signing the Benguela Current Convention, Angola, Namibia and South Africa agreed to manage the Benguela Current Large Marine Ecosystem (BCLME) in a cooperative and sustainable way for the benefit of coastal people who depend on the ecosystem for food, work and well-being.
The Benguela Current Large Marine Ecosystem (BCLME), regarded as one of the richest ecosystems on earth, is an area of ocean space stretching from Port Elizabeth in South Africa to the province of Cabinda in the north of Angola. Besides costal tourism, the most important industrial activities in the region include offshore oil and gas production, marine diamond mining, commercial fishing and shipping.
Let us hope it works out and the three countries will really manage to find a way to protect the fragile marine ecosystem while (sustainably) using the valuable resources settled in that environment.

18 March 2013

Back in June 2011 we blogged about the award winning documentary "Bouncing Cats", which tells the inspiring story of Ugandan b-boy Abraham "Abramz" Tekya and his attempts to create a better life for the children of Uganda using the unlikely tool of hip-hop with a focus on b-boy culture and breakdance. Now, about two years later, the film got already aired on television in the US, was screened at various festivals and events worldwide and is now also available online. Enjoy!

Kudos to Australian filmmaker, photographer and director of the documentary, Nabil Elderkin, for making the film available online, as well as to Crazy Legs of the Rock Steady Crew and, of course, to Abramz, the founder of Breakdance Project Uganda (BPU), and all the international guests appearing in "Bouncing Cats".

Kruger National Park will implement gate quotas during the coming school holidays which start on Wednesday, 20 March until Sunday, 07 April 2013. Day visitors are advised to either arrive at one of Kruger's ten gates very early in the morning because the service is on "first come first serve" basis or pre-book their entrance with central reservations office.Pre-booking comes with a non-refundable deposit of R30 per adult and R15 per child entering Kruger National Park; which must be paid in advance and is meant to ensure their space because they would have been counted in the number that made the daily quota. Day visitors with advanced bookings are expected to arrive at the booked gate by no later than 13:00 on the date of the booking, after which the booking lapses.

15 March 2013

Cape Town local Andrew Brauteseth created the awesome short film "10 reasons why Cape Town is the Best City in the World" as his entry into Mydestination.com's "Biggest Baddest Bucket List" travel competition. If Cape Town is currently not on your personal bucket list, watch the video and we are damn sure that the city will immidiately find a top spot on it. Kudos Andrew and good luck for the travel competition!

The flag carrier airline of the United Kingdom, British Airways, will increase the number of flights between London (Heathrow) and Nairobi in Kenya from currently seven flights per week to eight flights per week, effective from 12 May 2013. British Airways will operate the additional flight on board a Boeing 777-200 in a four-cabin configuration. The flight will depart London at 20:20 on Sunday evenings (arrival in Nairobi: 04:55 the next morning) while the return service from Nairobi will depart at 22:45pm on Monday evenings (arrival in London: 08:25 the next morning).

14 March 2013

Every year on 17 March, Ireland celebrates St. Patrick’s Day, a cultural and religious holiday named after Saint Patrick (c. AD 385–461), the patron saint of Ireland. But it is not only the Irish in Ireland celebrating the day, it got globally adopted and St. Patrick's Day partys and events are held all over world, including, of course, South Africa. There will be partys in almost every Irish Pub in the country, but one of the most spectacular events will take place in Cape Town. As part of Tourism Ireland's "Global Greening" campaign, the iconic Table Mountain will, for the third consecutive year, be illuminated in Irish green from 20hrs00 until midnight on 17 March 2013. If you are in Cape Town on St. Patrick's day, make sure that you don't miss it out! Enjoy!

The national airline of the Netherlands, KLM Royal Dutch Airlines, is currenly operating three weekly flights between Amsterdam - Harare - Lusaka - Amsterdam on board an Airbus A330-200 aircraft, but had so far no regional traffic rights to offer flights to travellers on the Harare <> Lusaka leg only. This is changing now as the airline, according to Airline Route, secured such traffic rights and is now enabled to pick up passengers travelling between Zambia and Zimbabwe. Tickets are on sale from 14 March 2013.